The jury, consisting of Jacques van Leeuwen (Chair), Gian De Belder (P&G) and Rosalyn Bandy (TLMI), was given the difficult task of reviewing the submitted data and determining the winners. The winning initiatives were characterized by their novelty, scalability and cooperation along the value chain. The competition had a converter and a supplier category: CCL Label and Avery Dennison were awarded with the Finat Sustainability Award 2021 in their respective category.
Avery Dennison was awarded with their entry “Sustainable resealable materials, from PVDC-free oxygen barriers in food to mono-material solutions in HPC”. The innovations described can easily be used in highly relevant types of packaging in the food and hygiene sectors, enabling the shelf life of products to be extended. At the same time, they ensure the recyclability of the packaging materials in accordance with the Ceflex design guidelines for flexible packaging materials.
Finat Regulatory and Sustainability Affairs Manager, Pablo Englebienne, commented “we were pleased to see participation from across the supply chain, and from all company sizes: small, medium and large. Although the awards went to two major players in the industry, we are pleased to see that sustainability is not a ‘blue chip’ privilege. I would really like to encourage also SMEs to submit again for next year. Going forward we are considering some changes to recognize sustainable innovations from all segments of the industry. We are looking forward to multiply this year’s numbers in 2022.”
Sustainable practice is key to the self-adhesive label industry and has been recognized as one of the pillars for Finat’s strategy. In addition to the growing availability of sustainable and economically viable recycling solutions for secondary materials from the industry, companies are making concerted efforts to limit the amount of raw materials used, increase the use of recycled material and to limit the impact of labels on the recyclability of the labelled product. The full award ceremony can be watched on Youtube. More information on Finat’s initiatives for sustainability, including available solutions for release liner recycling, are available on their website.
